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Summer
Tour 2005
Puppet
Tour Group
The 2005 Puppets for Christ tour was a whirlwind trip filled
with 10 days of experiences sharing God’s word to others.
We traveled to Atlanta and got a chance to perform for members
of several different churches interested in starting their own
puppet ministries. In exchange for our performance we
were rewarded with a delicious spaghetti dinner. WE WILL
WORK FOR FOOD! The next morning we revisited our friends
at Camp All American, a Christian day camp sponsored by
Perimeter Presbyterian Church. The auditorium was filled
with 500 kids, many of whom remembered us from the past few
years. Camp All American is always an enthusiastic group
of kids that know our songs and sing along. After the
morning performance we took the subway in to Underground
Atlanta for lunch at Johnny Rockets and a tour of the Coca
Cola Museum. We especially enjoyed the “Coke products from
around the world” tasting room.
Above:
Entrance of the Coca-Cola Museum.
Right:
Taylor and Josh immortalized in Antique Coca-Cola Tray |
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That
evening we joined the kids from the United Methodist
Children’s Home in Decatur, Georgia for pizza. We had
the pleasure of performing for this group again and find that
we are blessed by God to have met them all and had the
privilege to share God’s word with them through puppetry.
From Atlanta we traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to present
our program to The United Crescent Hill Ministries, a ministry
that provides assistance for youth, families and seniors in
the Louisville area. This audience was mostly made up of
Seniors and it is always amazing to find that no matter how
old you are…. our puppets can make you smile.
Different families took us in for the night and we were
treated to the hospitality that makes God’s family so
wonderful.
We finally made it to Kankakee, Illinois and the One Way
Street International Puppet Festival. We competed in two
competitions and took classes. We met puppet teams from
all over the U.S.A. and a few from other countries.
PFC
on the Road
We left the festival and traveled a few hours to the outskirts
of Chicago. We met Ruben Rodriguez who treated us to a
wonderful dinner and gave us the opportunity to perform for
the Chicago Downs racetrack workers and their children.
It was an exciting night and several adults and kids accepted
Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Some
Cowboys Had a Hard Time Turning in at Night (Austin Coates)
Sunday morning we were the main event of the worship service
for a small Hispanic church that met in the
auditorium/lunchroom of a local High School. It was 100
degrees and the auditorium did not have an air conditioner.
We only mention this to confirm that, when blacklight requires
you be dressed in long sleeved black shirts, black pants,
black socks, black gloves, and a hood in temperatures running
in triple digits, all things are possible through Christ who
strengthens us. For all our hard work we were treated to an
afternoon at the Chicago Pier and the musical “The Lion
King”, a puppet presentation with a considerably bigger
budget than PFC but nowhere near the heart and dedication of
our fine puppeteers.
Traveling back home we stopped at McKendree United Methodist
Church in downtown Nashville. We kicked off their
Vacation Bible School with a program centered on “knowing
God”. We spent the night in McKendree’s homeless
shelter which is empty during the summer months. The
lodgings fit our budget…..FREE. After the program we
got to see some of the sights and sounds of downtown Nashville
where most country-western singers got their start.
Sandy
with Junior High Girls
We spent our last night of tour back in Atlanta, enjoying some
delicious barbeque and a relaxing night at the Roswell United
Methodist Youth Center. The following morning we had our last
devotion and headed home on the final day of a journey
that had taken us many miles and many smiles into God’s
mission field.
Puppet
Group outside of Perimeter Church in Atlanta, Georgia
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